Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dead Space, survival-horror game review:

Dead Space is a Survival Horror/ Third Person Shooter by Visceral Games, and published by Electronic Arts (EA). You play as an ship systems engineer named Isaac Clark, who, with his crew, are sent to examine the USG Ishimura after a distress signal was sent out, and they set off to find out what's going on in the mining ship.

Shortly after arriving, everything quickly goes to hell and you are left out on your own. The HUD (heads up display) is much different, as your health bar is on the spine of your engineering RIG, and you can bring up your inventory, weapons, and such in real time, but be careful as you can still be attacked in this manner, even while looking at the 3D map. Also the game gives you a line system where you can see where you need to go to find your next objective.

The draw of this game is the "Strategic Dismemberment" System, where killing the Necromorphs, the main enemy of the game, requires you to destroy their limbs to put them down, and even then you will need to be careful they aren't playing dead as well. These weapons you will use to dismember your enemies are typically space mining tools improvised as weapons to fight off the Necromorphs. Also, all weapons feature a secondary firing mode, which has various uses, such as the Plasma Cutter being able to rotate horizontally and vertically to line up your shots differently.

You gather credits by killing enemies and finding boxes to open up, which can be spent at the Item shops. The shops offer various med kits, items, ammo, weapons, and even upgraded RIG suits, which can reduce damage received by the Necromorphs. Also, Power Nodes can be used to open up various locked doors or can be used at a crafting bench to further upgrade your RIG or weapons, and each weapon has several upgrades, such as damage, reload, and ammo capacity.

As you explore the ship you will be tasked with fixing various broken equipment and utilities on the Ishimura, as well as exploring the outside of the ship in a zero-g environment at times. In space and in other places where oxygen is not available, your suit will display how much oxygen you have left, and scattered in this parts are oxygen stations, which will refill your oxygen while you make it through the environment. Movement through gravity is done through jumping from point A to B, where you look at where you wish to jump, if it is possible, you can then jump to that location.

You also have access to Stasis, which can be used to slow down Necromorphs, and other items, such as malfunctioning doors and equipment, which are part of some of the puzzles you will be tasked with solving. You will need to use Stasis Packs to refill your stasis powers, although some places have stasis stations to refill it for you.

Speaking of Necromorphs, they are grotesque enemies and they are all different and unique. Slashers are the basic necromorph, and like to attack directly with their claws and use the ventilation systems to sneak up on you from behind or from your flanks. Some enemies, like Pregnants, require you to carefully line up your shots, or else hitting their belly will reveal more nasty enemies to fight. The variety of Necromorphs and how they function can be really terrifying. Some like to ambush, some are quick and agile, some are large brutes who will tear you apart with brute force, and all need to be dealt with via the strategic dismemberment system.

Having to deal with the necromorphs, while tending to the dark, claustrophobic environments, create a truly atmospheric survival horror game which I recommend to anyone who enjoys a good science fictionhorror experience, or who just likes horror in general.